Question

2)

A high school basketball team won exactly 65 percent
of the games it played during last season. Which of
the following could be the total number of games the
team played last season?
A) 22
B) 20
C) 18
D) 14

Answer 1

To find the answer, we can use the formula:

number of won games / total number of games played = percentage won

Let x be the total number of games played. We know that the percentage won is 65%, or 0.65 as a decimal. So we can set up the equation:

number of won games / x = 0.65

To solve for x, we can cross-multiply:

number of won games = 0.65x

We want to find a whole number value for x that makes sense. One way to do this is to try each answer choice and see if it gives a whole number value for the number of won games. Let's start with choice A:

If the team played 22 games, then the number of won games is:

number of won games = 0.65 * 22 = 14.3

This is not a whole number value, so we can rule out choice A.

We can repeat this process for each answer choice. When we try choice C, we get:

number of won games = 0.65 * 18 = 11.7

This is also not a whole number value, so we can rule out choice C.

When we try choice D, we get:

number of won games = 0.65 * 14 = 9.1

This is also not a whole number value, so we can rule out choice D.

Therefore, the only remaining answer choice is B, which gives us:

number of won games = 0.65 * 20 = 13

This is a whole number value, so the team could have played 20 games in total last season.